Russian parliament inclined to make legal decisions on Crimea's reunification with RF

MOSCOW, March 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Federal Assembly (parliament) members are inclined to pass as soon as possible all the necessary legal decisions on Crimea's reunification with the RF, Federation Council (FC) Deputy Speaker Ilyas Umakhanov said.

"I do not think that there will be some delays as regards these matters either in the State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) or in the FC. We are inclined to take as quickly as possible all the necessary legal decisions," the Deputy Speaker of the upper house of parliament emphasized.

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin recalled earlier, "A Federal constitutional law on the procedure for acceptance (of new entities) to the RF and formation of new constituent entities of the RF has been in effect since 2001". This document also determines accession requirements and procedure.

"The procedure consists of the following steps: a foreign state applies to the RF in a request for accession to the RF and for the conclusion of an appropriate interstate treaty," the House Speaker pointed out.

"The President of the RF informs the Federation Council, the State Duma and the Government of the RF of this and, if necessary, holds consultations. After signing an interstate treaty, the President of the RF applies to the Constitutional Court of the RF in a request to assess whether the interstate treaty conforms to the Constitution of the RF," he went on to say.

If the Constitutional Court gives a favourable appraisal, the draft interstate treaty together with the draft Federal constitutional law, which determines a name of the new constituent entity of the RF, its status, borders, transfer provisions the two documents are referred to the State Duma, Naryshkin explained. "The draft interstate treaty is submitted for ratification and a draft constitutional law for adoption," he specified.

"If the two documents in the form of laws on ratification are adopted, a respective amendment is introduced to Article 65 of the Constitution," the politician said. The article determines a list of constituent subjects of the RF. "In this case an amendment is introduced additionally the name of one or several constituent entities of the RF," Naryshkin added.

An extraordinary session of the Crimean parliament is to commence at 10 a.m. Monday to confirm the results of the referendum. In the afternoon, a delegation of the Crimean parliament will leave by air for Moscow for further arrangements with the State Duma and the Federation Council of the RFdirectly for the adoption of legal normative acts for the process accesssion (of the Crimea) to the Russian Federation.